If you’ve followed college basketball recruiting long enough, you remember the days of waiting for Xavier Henry or Patrick Patterson or Charlie Villanueva. Compared to Andrew Wiggins, though, waiting for those guys was like waiting for Godot.

OK, it’s true that each of those players was a big-deal recruit at the time. And, in fact, each became a capable college player. Patterson was one of the top scorers on John Calipari’s first Kentucky team, which won 35 games and dual Southeastern Conference championships. Villanueva won a championship ring with Connecticut as a freshman reserve in 2004 and helped the Huskies to a Big East co-championship the following season. Henry’s only college team became the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed. All three of them became top-20 NBA draft picks.

With Wiggins, however, we are talking about someone truly extraordinary.

On the day Wiggins steps on an NBA court, and that’ll happen sooner rather than later, he’ll become one of the greatest athletes ever to play in the league. We’re talking about the very stratosphere of athletic gifts, where Dominique Wilkins, Russell Westbrook, Julius Erving and, yes, that Jordan guy reside.

This is why the Wiggins recruitment is such an affair. He has yet to make a decision, and the truth is he has the juice to wait as long as he wants to make up his mind, perhaps past the close of the spring signing period in late May, perhaps until the start of summer classes at the university he ultimately chooses—perhaps even until the fall, if he’d prefer to train at home for a while.

None of the coaches involved can talk about this—not Calipari, not North Carolina’s Roy Williams, not Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton or Kansas’ Bill Self—but each of them knows: Wiggins can do things on the basketball court that ordinary great players cannot.

It’s the speed of the first step, which launches as though he is trying to beat Tyson Gay out of the blocks. It’s the suddenness of the elevation, released as though he is trying to beat Tyson Chandler to the top of the block.

It is extraordinarily difficult to measure any of this. There is no statistical gauge. His vertical leap can be measured and has been recorded at 44 inches, which does not approach the 52 inches once recorded by former Harlem Globetrotter Michael Wilson. No matter. Wilson could get higher, but did not generate the spectacular force of a flying Wiggins, who is 6-foot-8 and 205 pounds.

When he eventually attends the NBA’s Chicago Combine workout, and that, too, will happen sooner rather than later, the league can put him through shuttle tests that measure his quickness. But a scout only needs eyes and a frame of reference to recognize that when Wiggins catches the ball near the 3-point line and sets his sights on the rim, few, if any, current players will arrive at that destination as rapidly.

Wiggins averaged 23.4 points and 11.1 rebounds per game at West Virginia’s Huntington Prep, playing against a high-level schedule that included top teams from Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida and Texas. He scored 57 in a game against Marietta College’s junior varsity. None of this is going to tell you why he is different, though.

You can watch the YouTube videos that replay some of his highlights (see here, here and here), though inevitably they focus too much on dunks and occasionally run sequences in slow motion, which is entirely beside the point. Can you tell how fast Usain Bolt is if you’re watching him run slower?

Wiggins has developed a full, well-rounded game while so many have focused on his dunks and blocks. He plays well in the low post and should dominate the unfortunate 6-4ish wings who’ll often be assigned to defend him in college. He is a developing 3-point shooter whose economical motion and obvious touch suggest he is capable of flirting with the 40-percent mark from deep. He’ll rebound at the defensive end and jet off on fast breaks. He’ll attack the offensive glass because he understands what a source of baskets that can be.

It’s possible Duke-bound Jabari Parker is a more complete, skilled player. It’s beyond question that Kentucky-bound Julius Randle is a more powerful figure who’ll be a load for any college program to stop.

Wiggins ultimately will be the greatest player from this great class, however. It’s been six years since we saw college basketball invaded by such a talented group, when Kevin Love, Derrick Rose, Mike Beasley, Blake Griffin and O.J. Mayo entered college. It’s been even longer since we saw a prospect with the package of size, skill athleticism that Wiggins will take to some fortunate campus. Eventually.